Beer: Ratings & Reviews

Reviews by matjack85:

This was featured as one of the beers of the month selections at Sal's Liquors in Addison, IL, so I picked one up for just $5.99 instead of the regular $6.99 price for a single 11.2oz brown bottle. Still on the expensive side for a smaller than 12oz bottle of beer. No freshness date, but not too concerned about that as barleywines age well, although it would be nice to know how far along in the aging process this bottle has gotten.

The beer poured a hazy orange color with only a ½ finger of white head. Neither the head retention nor the lacing was very impressive.

The smell is very wine-like. Graoey aroma along with some sweet toffee, vanilla, and a touch of alcohol.

Mmmm ... this is delicious! Big dose of sweet caramel malts and toffee up front combnine nicely with the fruity grapes. Add a dash of vanilla and a little alcohol and that pretty much completes it. No real hop presence at all. Maybe some low alpha oil spiced hop is used, but nothing bittert in here at all.

Mouthfeel is smooth and rich with perfect carbonation.

The alcohol flavor is far less in here than in some barleywines, making it very drinkable and tasty, but still 9.5% alcohol is still 9.5% alcohol, so I wouldn't recommend downing a 6 of these, but I certainly wouldn't mind going back for one more.

More User Reviews:

My bottle is labeled Swedish Barley Wine. Anyway, pours into my glass an intensely clear almost pinkish goldenrod hue. A thin white ring above the brew but not much in the way of head. Steady active carbonation. An interesting lighter colored barley wine. Aromas start with a deep caramelized grain with some cherry and fruity scents as well. A touch toasty with toffee notes and a nutty, spicy aspect. A bit subdued.

First sip brings a rich caramel malt flavor upfront. A nice fruity flavor moves in with cherry coming out as most apparent. It flows down with some nutty, spicy flavors and finishes with a touch of herbal hop bitterness as well. Not much alcohol in the flavor at all.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied and chewy. It makes itself known but is not as heavy as most American barley wine's I have sampled. Pretty easy to drink overall. This is a unique take on the style from a brewery whose beers I've just started to see across the pond here. Makes a good night cap. I'll probably try some of their other styles if I run across them again.

The beer pours an orange-amber color with a white head. The aroma has a ton of sugar and bready malt in it. The flavor is also very sweet. I get a lot of brown sugar and molasses, as well as some pine and grass from the hops. There is also a lot of caramel and biscuit malt in the flavor. Medium mouthfeel and medium carbonation.

Pours oily copper with barely a white head. Dense aroma of caramel, bread dough, candi sugar, and oak. Syrpupy mouthfeel with nearly no carbonation. More caramel and candied fruits. Some peppery hops creep in toward the back with an earthy/wood flavor. Change of pace from the barleywines I normally drink from the West Coast.

Wow, this was one of the more glowing barleywines I've seen, usually they take on a brown appearance, this was more yellow and orange. Aroma was minimal, but sweet and non offensive.

Taste, sweet again, but not overpowering. A lot of different fruit, maybe licorice and vanilla to it as well. Unnecessarily complex, but appreciated and not completely out there. I don't know what to call this, isn't like any BW I've had before. Tastes like some middle ground between hard alcohol and beer. Its like a mixed drink. Someone made barleywine & gin, together at last!

Well, probably not my style, quite a thick, sweet, malty palate, quite suruppy, doughy and sticky, bordering on cloying, but not quite, had it on a warmish day here in sydney, so maybe that affected my rating, slightly enjoyable, but not my style.

(Served in a tulip)A- This beer has a hazy deep orange body with a sea of microbubbles and a sticky egg-cream foam on top. S- The light but rich caramel aroma has a slight buttery quality and a fresh raw grain aroma to it. There is a nice white toffee aroma at the finish. T- This beer has a slightly dry caramel flavor with a softer white toffee note that becomes just a bit sweet in the finish. M- This beer has a medium mouthfeel with no real alcohol heat. D- This beer has lots of light toasted malts and just a bit of sweetness but it is still rich and full bodied. This an interesting version of a barley wine and great for the cold months.

Creamy off-white head, copper colour, lacing, head diminidhes to a thin lid. Aroma of honey, alcohol, syrup. Flavour is vety light for being a barley wine, it is sweet, tastes of honey, jam, dark fruit, low bitterness. Mouthfeel is very smooth, small bubbles. R'This barley wine is dangerously easy to drink, and for a nice quiet evening I do like that it is not overpowering, for the right mood this is a great beer, even though this is not the most complex of it's kind.

Sweetish barleywine ale. Nothing special to look at, and a mild barleywine and malty aroma. A little grapey taste, a little hoppy,toasted caramel,dash of licorice, a nice one. Average mouthfeel. Good drinking.Alcohol well hidden. Suitable carbonation.

Pours clear gold with faint carbonation, no head or lace. Smells like caramel and honey with woody alcohol overtones. Simple, but clean and fresh. Very sweet flavor. Honey and toasted malts come to the front, with some dry woodiness in the finish. Alcohol is restrained for the style and only appears significantly in the lightly warming aftertaste. Body is on the light side; smooth and unobtrusive.

A: The ale is a brilliant golden orange color, bright with no turbidity. A finger or so of white bubbles emerged on pour and quickly whittled away.

S: The barleywine has a thick congealed aroma, full of intensely concentrated barley and cereal notes. Not much hop-wise appears but there is a faint bitterness overtop of the malts.

T: Interesting first sip. Based on the nose, I was expecting lots of grains, a cornucopia of bready thickness. Surprisingly, the body is mild. Sure there are big malt flavors, lots of grain and cereal, but they aren't completely in your face. In fact, a touch of smokiness runs throughout a sip, adding a nice flourish of flavor. The effect is a smoked ham sandwich with the cured meat and bready grains. The hops don't add much to the body.

M: The mouthfeel is full of grains and the result is a sweet, biting flavor that isn't half bad.

D: The booze is well hidden for a 9.5% offering. That being said, one glass is enough because the strength can catch you off guard.

I originally drank this brew on 10/24/2009, for whatever reason I didn't put this review on BA at the time.

11.2 ounce bottle. Served in a pint glass, the beer pours a hazy amber/orange color with about a half inch off-white head. Head retention and lacing are both good. The aroma is mostly fruity, it smells like apricots, pears, figs, caramel, and bready malt. Taste is pretty much the same as the aroma, except with the addition of some peppery spice and oak. Mouthfeel/body is medium, it's a little bit coating and has moderate carbonation. Drinkability is good, it's smooth and easy to drink. The alcohol in this brew is well hidden. I think this is a good overall brew. I enjoyed it, and would buy it again in the future.

I have no idea how old this beer is but it's definitely not fresh. I'll stamp it at around a year, maybe more (no more than two probably). The carbonation is there, but even with an aggressive pour there wasn't much of a head. Both the flavor and aroma carry a good amount of vanilla. The hops are almost non-existent, except to maybe add a little bit of an herbal tea aroma. The flavor has an interesting smokey flavor, not sure where it came from.

Maybe this is a beer that can out-age a Thomas Hardy's Ale. I would love to try this one fresh. Recommended.

This is a barleywine? Since when? Yeah, unfortunately, it says it's one right on the bottle... Really too bad. It might be OK as a 'light' I2PA but barleywine? Never. No color, no head. Weird caramel and straw smell (not like I'd expect - still, I give this an average grade). Taste? What taste? That went with the color... Flavor 'light' - light sweetness, light bitterness, light malt. Bah. I feel cheated!

Bottle into pint glassA – Half a finger light tan head to a crown on a hazy/sediment brown amber with maroon tones and golden edges. I really like the color 4S – Caramel malts, dark fruit, cherries or currants, slight spice, oak 3.5T – Unique. Earthy and peppery with nuts, slight fruits, subtle overall almost too much so for such a high ABV barleywine. Slight alcohol on the finish. 3.5M – Medium body is smooth and a bit boozy, small bubble carbonation, not as big as most barleywines I’ve had 3.5O – Was hoping my Swedish ancestors would teach me something about Barleywine, oh well… decent but not exciting. Would not advise a fellow BA to seek this out. 3.5

O: not a bad beer, but I tend to look for something a little more complex in a barleywine, whereas this was pretty straightforward on the fruits. I also tend to look for a little crispness or zing - this was a very mellow beer - which you may like, but for me it fell into that kind of average range